Back in 1999, when the idea for this business was just a spark between two new mom friends who met in a Mommy & Me class, we were clueless about what to call it (fun fact: I originally co-founded Social Butterfly Designs with my friend Susan Mills in 2000). We spent countless hours brainstorming and writing down potential names. We even turned to family and friends to see if any ideas stuck. It wasn’t until my former colleague at Princess Cruises, Diane Elcan, suggested “Social Butterfly” that we both immediately fell in love with the name. There was just one problem—someone had already claimed the domain name!
We knew we wanted to build a website eventually, so we had to get creative. My husband, Paul, came to the rescue with a simple suggestion—why not add “Designs” to the name? And just like that, Social Butterfly Designs was born.
We filed our DBA, opened a bank account, and started designing samples for invitations, holiday cards, and birth announcements in preparation for our November 2000 launch. But there was still one crucial element left—our logo. We needed something that would stand out and represent our brand in the best way possible.
During my time as Manager of Public Relations at Princess Cruises, I developed strong relationships with a talented design firm, Sargent and Berman, based in Santa Monica. Greg Berman and Peter Sargent, the principals of the firm, had become close friends after working together on various logo designs and brochures for Princess Cruises’ new ship launches. In fact, they had even designed my wedding invitations in 1996! They generously agreed to create a few logo comps for us, and this is where we ended up in 2000. While their design fees were beyond our budget, they were kind enough to do this for us pro bono, and I am forever grateful to them.
Fast forward to 2017, after attending Katie Hunt’s Paper Camp in Manhattan Beach, the idea of a rebrand started to make sense. I reached out to my friend Greg, who by then had rebranded his firm as Berman Design Group. Greg and his team worked their magic to refresh our logo, and I absolutely love the result! It’s clean, modern, and perfectly reflects the heart of Social Butterfly Designs.
Now, as I celebrate my 25th anniversary this year—I wanted to create something special to commemorate this milestone. This time, I decided to design it myself. I wanted to incorporate “25 years” into the design, but I didn’t want to ask another favor. After some thought, I ran my ideas past Greg, and he suggested something simple yet meaningful—use my own handwriting under the original logo. Since my handwriting has always been a personal part of my work, it felt like the perfect fit.
And so, the new look for my business cards and commemorative bookmark was born! Every purchase this year will come with a bookmark to celebrate our 25 years.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts!